City Diary: Hard times see Chris Hohn’s hedge fund profits slide

Tough trading conditions have dented profits at TCI Fund Holdings, the hedge fund group run by Chris Hohn that ultimately supports the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

TCI Fund Holdings saw its net profits fall by 60pc over the year to the end of February to £17.6m, according to its latest accounts, while revenue, derived primarily from management and performance fees based on the assets managed, fell from £110m to £65m.

The holding company embraces the Cayman Islands-based TCI Fund Management, better known by its former name of the Children’s Investment Fund Management, which channels a percentage of its annual profits into the charity run by Hohn’s wife Jamie, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

The charity isn’t doing too badly in austere times, Diary notes. It received income of £56m for the year to August 31 2011, documents regulator the Charity Commission, up from £44m the previous year.

A new spirit of openness at Standard Life Investments, which has announced a change to its voting transparency.

The global investment manager will now disclose its voting record within two weeks of the relevant month end, instead of the current disclosure which is three months in arrears.

This is “indicative of the increased interest our clients have in such issues”, says Standard Life, which boasts it is now voting at more than 1,000 shareholder meetings a year, where it plans to vote its clients’ shares “in a manner consistent with their best interests”.

What took them so long?

Continuing the mood of transparency, Standard Life shareholders will be interested to know that the company’s chief executive, David Nish, has put his money where his mouth is. On Tuesday, he reinvested 15,901 shares in the company at a price of 304.02p, taking his personal stake in the business to 1,048,039 shares.

Royal visit for the Bank

The red carpet is being rolled out at the Bank of England for Her Majesty the Queen, who Diary hears is paying a visit to Threadneedle Street on the arm of Prince Philip next Thursday.

Her Majesty last toured the Bank in 1998, when the former Governor Eddie George was in charge, so no doubt she will be eager to hear how monetary policy has since moved on. Her Majesty’s tour guides for the day will be the Bank of England’s heads of division Victoria Cleland and Gareth Ramsay. Sir Meryvn King, meanwhile, has been given the lesser duty of greeting the royal party as they arrive.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the central bank’s new chief operating officer – a role at the same level as deputy governors Paul Tucker and Charlie Bean that commands the same basic salary of £258,809 – continues. The successful person must have the “total confidence” of the Governor, says the candidate brief. Now Mark Carney has been confirmed as Sir Mervyn King’s successor, the Canadian is taking an active role in the hunt for his right-hand man. By Skype, Diary assumes.

Sheikhs’ racing turf

The Shard and Harrods-snaffling Qataris are “making their influence felt” in the racehorse-buying world, says my man in the auction room.

But this week’s winter sales at Newmarket were dominated by Dubai’s royal family. Between them, Sheikh Fahad al Thani and his brother Sheikh Joaan spent 2.2m guineas on two of Newmarket’s top bloodstock lots. Also in the running was Michael Vincent Magnier, a chip off his racehorse-loving Irish tycoon father John, who paid 1m guineas for a mare called Blue Symphony.

ICAP’s annual charity day has raised more than £100m since its inception in 1993, after this year’s event made £11m. Among those helping ICAP reach its target were Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who did a SWf 250m interest rate swaps deal, and Olympian Mo Farah. Michael Spencer, group chief executive, called the £100m milestone a “momentous” achievement.